Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Kid Rock’s hilarious PSA.  I love this.  It’s right on the money and exactly how I feel about pirating.

Match 49

Take On Me (a-ha)

vs.

I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues (Elton John)

Match 50

When Doves Cry (Prince)

Prince won’t put his music on YouTube, not even an official video where embedding is disabled.

vs.

Voices Carry (’til Tuesday)

Voices Carry video

Friday, July 18, 2008

Match 47

So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry) (R.E.M.)

vs.

Owner Of A Lonely Heart (Yes)

Match 48

Rio (Duran Duran)

vs.

Take My Breath Away (Berlin)

Thursday, July 17, 2008

“It looks like a pterodactyl out of a gay Jurassic Park.”

Oh, Tim.  How I’ve missed you.  Could we just spoon one night?  I just want to cuddle with you a little bit. 

I’ve been a little leery of the fifth season of PR, because, really, how does one top the wonder that is Christian Siriano?  I honestly don’t know.

Fortunately, it looks like this will be a season for the girls.  I’m really digging them so far.  Kenley has a great Bettie-Page-pinup-girl way about her.  Kelli seems really innovative.  I think Korto is going to bring something completely new and different to Project Runway that’s never been seen before.  Jennifer could be an underdog to reckon with later in the season.  There’s something I really like about Terri, but I can’t put my finger on it yet. 

Last night’s challenge echoed the Gristedes challenge from Season One.  So fitting that they brought back Austin Scarlett in all his powdered glory.  “And so it shall be for you,” he says, as he recalls his own experience with designing a garment out of grocery store products.  Only Ms. Scarlett could talk like that and get away with it.  Unfortunately, few designers took the risks that Austin took when he made his famous corn husk dress and the challenge was basically a flop.  Many designers played it safe, choosing tablecloths and other fabric-like items from Gristedes to create their looks.  Let us analyze the garments from the Rate The Runway photos, in order:

Kenley

Love it.  She’s not afraid to mix colors and prints.  The skirt is made from lawn chairs.  Super cute.

Terri

Forget the skirt, it’s all about that top.  She hand crocheted it from mop heads.

Suede

The first of many tablecloth dresses, this one in blue.  After Tim said the judges would call them a bunch of slackers for choosing such easy, predictable materials, he “fixed” his problem by sewing little squares of solid blue all over the dress.  Still hideous and boring.

Emily

I can’t even remember what she used to make that awful collar, but I don’t care for anything about this look.

Leanne

Boring tablecloth dress, made kitschy by the addition of pieces of candy glued to it.  She looks like she belongs in CandyLand! The Musical! 

Jennifer

I love this dress.  She made the entire thing from paper towels.  I can’t imagine paper towels would be very easy to work with, but the dress was well constructed.  I could have done without the lipstick kisses, but it was a different way to bring some interest to an otherwise plain white dress.  At least she didn’t use a tablecloth.

Jerell

I hate this dress.  There’s too much going on with that paper-umbrella asymmetrical neckline.  And the sleeve is way too Vegas showgirl.  I don’t even remember what the skirt is made of.

Keith

Of everyone in The Tablecloth Club, Keith executed his dress most successfully, because of the shape of the skirt. 

Wesley

I like this dress, but again, more tablecloth.  He did add some interest by embellishing the strap and back with plastic flyswatters and some other plastic items.  I like that he went with items of the same color to make his garment work.  Not a winning design, but nice.

Joe

I absolutely hated this dress.  It looked like a third grade art project.  The bodice was made from oven mitts, and the skirt was just a muslin skirt with pasta glued all over it.  The whole idea was way too literal and ridiculous. 

Korto

While she did use tablecloth to create her dress, I give her major points for the design.  Michael Kors said it was the right dress on the right model, and he’s absolutely correct.  This dress on one of those twelve-pound amazonian white girls would have been disastrous.  Korto was also the only designer to use fresh produce in her design.  The kale and tomato neckpiece was beautiful and looked like a stunning piece of jewelry against the bicycle yellow of that dress.  I loved the whole look and was rooting for her to win.

Daniel

Could be this season’s Keith.  Let’s hope he doesn’t have books stashed under his bed.  This dress was made entirely of blue plastic cups.  He cut them up and molded them to the muslin sheath by ironing and gluing them together.  And he didn’t use a tablecloth!  He definitely understood the spirit of this challenge, which put him in the top three.  Also it’s a good thing his model had boobs, otherwise that dress would not have worked as well.

Blayne

Mess!  Nina called the look ‘provocative,’ which I think was generous.  No one would wear this diaper.  Horrible.  He was so proud of himself, though, and I think he really believed he was on that runway because his design was one of the best.  Apparently tanning, not television, rots your brain.

Jerry

Oh, poor egomaniacal Jerry.  All his design experience and wonderfulness did not serve him well in this challenge.  Maybe he was too busy being smug to focus on the task at hand.  The whole look ("summer dress under a shower curtain raincoat") was creepy and messy.  I think he thought too much about the idea of the look and completely got lost in the execution.  The gloves and boots just made it laughable. 

Kelli

The winner of this challenge.  No wonder.  That skirt, made from vacuum bags that she marbleized with dye and bleach was brilliant.  The burnt-coffee filter top might have been a bit better if the model wasn’t so flat-chested.  A little roundness to the filters would have made the top work much better.  My favorite part was the hook-and-eye closures she created out of notebook spiral.  All of her little touches had to have earned her the winning points.  Really fantastic.

Stella

I was bummed that she was eliminated.  Her garbage bag rockstar pants could have been so cool with a nice glossy Hefty instead of the cheap, dull brand she happened to pick up.  It was a disappointment to see that she wouldn’t be able to create her signature look.  I think she could have done more than this garment, if she hadn’t gotten so caught up in negativity.  Her elimination was really the result of a self-fulfilled prophecy.  Too bad, because she might’ve been a cool addition to the show.

ETA:  OMG.  What the hell is wrong with me?  Tony just reminded me that Stella didn’t get eliminated.  I must be on crack.  Seriously, I don’t know what I was thinking to write this!  Anyway, BYE, JERRY!

Hopefully the designers will step it up a bit in the next challenge and not play it so safe.  By the fifth season, I think viewers expect the bar to be raised to outrageous levels.  Most of the designs in this challenge didn’t even meet the bar, so these folks have some work to do!  Some of the designers need to turn down the bravado and turn up the talent.  I’d love to see Kelli, Kenley, Korto, and Daniel in the top 4.

Oh, and I love Tim Gunn.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Match 45

What’s Love Got To Do With It (Tina Turner)

What’s Love Got To Do With It video

vs.

Suddenly Last Summer (The Motels)

Match 46

What Is Love (Howard Jones)

If anyone dares to vote this out, know ahead of time that I just hate you and I hate your ass face.

vs.

Beat It (Michael Jackson)

Beat It video

I’m taking a break from the Spring Awakening soundtrack to tell you about my latest discovery. 

Saturday afternoon, Amy, Michelle and I had lunch at The Soy Luck Club.  It was a great place to go, as they had vegan and non-vegan options for their salad-heavy menu.  Amy and I ordered the same salad - a bed of mesclun greens with chopped hazelnuts, julienned granny smith apple, fresh sliced tomato and soy “chicken”.  The tomato was intensely red and full of flavor, and the granny smith apples were crisp and tart.  A great mix of flavor and texture in a really simple salad.  Although Amy and I agreed that what makes a really great salad is that you don’t have to prepare it yourself. 

Anyway, while I was standing at the counter waiting to order, I noticed a little sign to my right, exalting the benefits of a red tea called “rooibos” which hails from Africa.  It was described as having a “rich vanilla” flavor and “five times the antioxidants” as green tea, but naturally caffeine-free.  Since I’ve really cut back on the caffeine over the last month or two, I thought I’d give it a try, iced.  The first sip left me wondering where the rich vanilla flavor was.  I guess I could detect a hint of vanilla undertones, but the tea had more of a nutty flavor that lingered.  After three or four more sips, I was completely hooked and it wasn’t long before I was sucking every last drop from the bottom of my cup and wondering if I should get a refill. 

We stopped at the Whole Foods in Chelsea on our way uptown, and I bought a box of rooibos (pronounced roy-boss by some and roi-bose by others), to try at home.  I also learned that the restaurant’s claim of “five times the antioxidants” was not exactly accurate.  Rooibos has the same antioxidant properties as green tea, making it heart healthy.  One study I read promoted rooibos as cancer fighting, as well.  Bonus.  I think my favorite thing about this tea is that the longer you steep it, the better it tastes, without turning bitter (low in tannin).  I’ve been making teas all summer and I can’t seem to get the steep time just right to avoid that bitter aftertaste. 

Wow.  I wasn’t really planning on writing a page-long treatise on the wonders of rooibos, but I guess I got carried away.  Anyway, if you’re interested in trying it, the brand name I bought is Numi and it’s delicious.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Match 43

Whip It (Devo)

vs.

Hungry Like The Wolf (Duran Duran)

Match 44

Love Is A Battlefield (Pat Benatar)

vs.

It’s My Life (Talk Talk)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

The nearly six hours it took us to drive from DC to New Jersey (thanks, traffic!) was *so* worth it.  Tony dropped me off at my friend Michelle’s place in NJ, where forty-eight hours of laughter commenced.  Amy, Michelle and I celebrated getting older and perhaps a bit wiser by treating ourselves to a girls weekend in New York City. 

Friday night we dined in Edgewater, where we had the most magnificent view of the city skyline.  After all this time, it still thrills me to see it.  On Saturday morning, we headed downtown, where we browsed a street fair in the West Village and milled in and out of various shops.  After a leisurely lunch, we walked back to midtown, stopping along the way for coffee and iced tea.  We were stopped not once, not twice, but four times for directions by various people.  Amy and Mich insist that I have “the look,” which apparently is a combination of approachability and knowledge.  Amy thought it was pretty funny that I was the one constantly being asked for help, since I am by far, the bitchiest of our triumverate.  In any case, I was helpful in exactly zero of the cases, having no idea where the nearest H&M was, where one might find an inexpensive restaurant (something with “Star” in the name), or how much the air train to JFK might cost.  We rounded out our day with a great dinner and vegan banana cream pie, before we headed over to the Eugene O’Neill to see the show I’ve been drooling over for the last year - Spring Awakening.  It didn’t hurt that we passed Dr. Ruth Westheimer along the way, fulfilling our prediction that we would see someone famous on the street, as we always do when we’re together.

I really had no idea what to expect from Spring Awakening.  Unlike my relationship with movies and certain television shows, I like to remain unspoiled when it comes to Broadway shows.  All I knew of the production was what I’d see on the 2007 Tony Awards, when it won the award for Best Musical.  Even if I’d listened to the entire soundtrack, I wouldn’t have been prepared for what I saw on that stage Saturday night.  The music, the lyrics, the production - all brilliant.  It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen on Broadway and it’s groundbreaking in the way Rent was when it appeared on the scene.  I suspect when Rent closes next month, there will be an influx of new audience members to Spring Awakening who are looking to channel their energy into another amazing show.  That’s a good thing, because of all the shows I have ever seen on Broadway, especially on a Saturday night, I cannot remember a time when the theatre was not full or close to full.  Last night there were whole empty sections of the lower and upper mezzanines, which saddened me, even though the audience brought the cast back for two additional curtain calls.  (The best thing ever was the guy in the box house right, who was jumping up and down and screaming at the end of the show.  He *was* Steve from Guffman.)

I won’t go into the details of the show, but I will say that the soundtrack does not do the live performance justice.  We were lucky enough to see a Canadian artist by the name of Kyle Riabko playing Melchior, the male lead, and another man, Blake Bashoff in the featured role of Moritz.  Bashoff played the role of Karl on Lost, so I was excited to have seen him in the role.  At first I was disappointed I wouldn’t be seeing the original Moritz, John Gallagher, but Bashoff played the part so expertly and with such amazing energy, he was just as fantastic.  As an added bonus, I learned that Riabko played with a really great band we recently discovered (they opened for Hanson), Steven Kellogg and The Sixers.  Six degrees of separation, and all that - very cool.  Riabko and Bashoff are scheduled to join the touring production of Spring Awakening, so I’ll be thrilled to see them again when they come to DC next summer.  One last casting woohoo is that cast member Brian Charles Johnson (love him!) is from Buffalo!  Go WNY on BWAY! 

If anyone’s seen Spring Awakening, leave comments, because I’d love to hear what you thought of the show.  I could talk about it for days. 

Just a fantastic weekend all around. 

Thursday, July 10, 2008

One of my daily reads is dooce.  It’s easy to see why Heather Armstrong’s blog is one of the most popular websites on These Here Internets.  To be brutally honest about one’s life and side-splitting at the same time is a feat many have tried but few have achieved.  Sometimes I complain when I read her entries, but it’s only because it’s jealous of the really cool stuff she has in her house that I don’t have.

Last month Heather wrote about her attempt at the Oprah-touted 21-day “cleanse” which consists of eliminating animal products, sugar, caffeine, gluten, and alcohol from one’s diet.  This is pretty much my diet since 2003.  I recently eliminated sugar (refined) and most gluten.  When I went vegan, I noticed a definite change in my well-being, and since the short time I’ve given up on sugar, I feel even better.  (I don’t think I will be able to eliminate sugar forever, because there will inevitably come a day when I need a pint of So Delicious Mocha Almond Fudge, but for now, I’m doing ok without it.) On the fourth day of the cleanse, Heather felt like straight-up shit with a sinus infection to boot.  She went to her doctor and this is what happened:

He continued to shake his head. “I am absolutely certain,” he continued, “that the reason you have this sinus infection is because you’re doing this cleanse. And my opinion is that you should stop.”

I almost kissed that man on the lips.

I hadn’t gone into that room looking for a reason to stop the cleanse, but when those words came out of his mouth I realized just how miserable I had been all week. And because my emotions were so out of whack it felt like he had told me that from now on when I peed, one hundred dollar bills would fall out of my vagina and into the toilet.

I’ll wait until you’ve finished laughing at that last sentence before I go on.

I’ve been reading this blog for years, and although I do not know this woman, I have no reason to believe she’s not telling the truth when she says she had all intentions to stick the cleanse out and didn’t go to the doctor’s office to find an excuse to stop.  What totally pisses me off about this story is that her doctor just listened to her story about being on this cleanse and proclaimed it the root cause of all that ailed her.  I was surprised she was so quick to agree.

Yesterday Tony’s brother told me about a woman he knows whose doctor refused her multiple requests for an epidural, saying she had ‘plenty of time’, and when the baby came faster than expected, the arm and head came out at the same time, which caused extensive tearing. 

And I think everyone knows how I feel about following the advice of a doctor or nurse who recommends circumcision. 

Do I trust doctors?  Absolutely.  One of my best friends is a physician, and a fine one at that.  I don’t believe in self-diagnosing on WebMD (although I really enjoy trying) or quackism (Penn&Teller just did a great episode of Bullshit on ‘natural’ medicine).  I do believe in arming oneself with enough information to ask questions of medical practitioners and advocate for one’s own health and health care.  I’m not saying Heather’s doctor was wrong, but I think I would have been a bit leery of his lightning-fast diagnosis, without any sort of swabbing or bloodwork or general poking and prodding. 

I feel strongly about this not because I think Heather gave up the cleanse too quickly (even after the doctor “released” her from the cleanse, she didn’t veer from it all that much - yay!).  It’s because I think healthcare self-advocacy is so unbelievably crucial.  At 21, I underwent the first of many surgeries on my reproductive system to alleviate problems caused by endometriosis.  Had I not jumped so quickly into agreeing to major, invasive surgery and researched my options a bit further, I might have learned that I had options - some surgical, some not - worth exploring that might have preserved my fertility.  Seventeen years later, I am unable to get pregnant without medical intervention; specifically, in vitro fertilization.  I am in constant, chronic pain.  I don’t want to sound dramatic, because the way I feel has little impact on my life.  I have a high tolerance for pain and in all honesty, I don’t know what it feels like to be “normal,” so I have no basis upon which to say, “I wish I still felt like I did when I was...” because I’ve felt this way since I was twelve.  I have no idea if my blind faith in my doctor had any impact on my current situation, but since I didn’t take ownership of my health care back then, I’ll never know.  I will, however, always wonder.  And regret.

The point is, trust your doctor but ask questions, too.  If your instincts tell you, even just a tiny bit, that you aren’t sure about a doctor’s recommendation or diagnosis, do some research.  Get another opinion.  We always hear that on television and in the movies, but how many of us actually do it? 

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Match 41

Pink Houses (John Cougar Mellencamp)

(Remember the Pink Houses contest on MTV?  I *so* wanted to win that!)

Pink Houses video

vs.

If You Leave (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark)

Match 42

Cuts Like A Knife (Bryan Adams)

vs.

Summer of ‘69 (Bryan Adams)